So let him, when he’s twenty-one,
If he be wise, all babblers shun.”
Quintus Horatius Flaccus Horace.
THE WISH FOR LENGTH OF LIFE
PRODUCE the urn that Hannibal contains,
And weigh the mighty dust that yet remains.
And this is all? Yet this was once the bold,
The aspiring chief, whom Attic could not hold.
Afric, outstretched from where the Atlantic roars
To Nilus; from the Line to Libya’s shores.